Jewelry articles, such as pendants and charms with moveable appendages, are known and such charms in the form of animals with moveable head and leg appendages are particularly popular. Such articles are relatively small, and are typically cast of precious or semi-precious metals wherein a main body or torso of the article is cast as a hollow body and the appendages, such as head, arms and legs, may also be hollow bodies or, in smaller items, cast as solid parts.
The assembly of such articles can be difficult and the proper retention of the moveable appendages also difficult to accomplish because of the physical size of the articles. For example, the overall height or length of a charm or pendant in the form an animal may be less than 1.0 inches and the length of the appendages no more than 0.25 inches.
Several efforts have been attempted in the prior art to develop suitable connections between the main body portions of charms or pendants and moveable appendages therefor. However, the complexity of the assembly process with some prior art designs including multiple solder points and connections which place undue stress on the joint members has created a need for an improved joint connection between appendages of animal charms or pendants as well as similar jewelry articles which have interconnected parts which are moveable relative to each other. The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of prior art joint connections between parts of jewelry articles, such as animal form pendants and charms, and also meets substantially all of the desiderata for providing reliable and proper joint connections for such articles.